MOOSE JAW — The City of Moose Jaw has owned a tax title property for 16 years and has decided to clean up the site of chemicals and sell it on the market.
During its April 28 executive committee meeting, city council approved a recommendation to accept grant funding from the Saskatchewan Impacted Sites Fund (SISF) to proceed with environmental remediation of the city-owned vacant commercial property at 856 Athabasca Street East.
The remediation project’s budget is $60,375, so the city will use $25,875 in grant money from the SISF and $34,500 from its contaminated sites recovery reserve. Also, the municipality will take all proceeds from the future sale of this property and deposit them into the contaminated sites recovery reserve to support future remediation projects.
This recommendation became official during council’s May 12 regular meeting after it approved the executive committee meeting minutes.
City hall explained in an email that it acquired the property in 2009 through the tax title process. It noted that the site previously contained two underground storage tanks (USTs) that the owners used to store gasoline and oil waste.
“The removal of these tanks and additional environmental testing are necessary to mitigate potential environmental risks,” the city said. “Remediating the site will enhance its suitability for commercial redevelopment, increase marketability and support infill development.
“Given the property’s size, visibility, and the limited availability of similar commercial lots, it represents a strong redevelopment opportunity once fully remediated,” the organization continued. “… remediating the site will (also) help attract investment, stimulate local economic activity and generate new property tax revenue.”
The city applied to the Saskatchewan Impacted Sites Fund to acquire grant money to support this project, as the purpose of the fund is to assist municipalities with cleaning up abandoned or environmentally affected sites, the email said. The maximum amount available from the fund for this project was $25,875, while the city’s contaminated sites recovery reserve contains $50,659.
Moose Jaw has not completed any other remediation projects involving USTs during the past 10 years, but it has conducted “at least 13” environmental site assessments (ESAs) on similar city-owned properties, the email continued.
These assessments help identify existing or potential contamination, determine potential liabilities and guide sampling, analysis and planning to remediate identified issues, thereby improving the redevelopment potential of these properties.
As for the value of the property, the municipality said council in June 2024 approved a pricing strategy for various city-owned properties based on completed appraisals. Following the remediation of this site, the city will market the property for sale through a public tender process “at the previously approved list price,” which it will publicly disclose when it issues the tender.
More information about city-owned land for sale can be found at the .
